At the End
by katiesgotagun
Summary: Sam Winter's life is turned upside-down as she is thrust into a strangely familiar world. Journey with Sam and other survivors during the zombie outbreak. Daryl Dixon x OC
1. Chapter 1

Sam ran the back of her hand against her sweaty forehead in hopes to cool down her over-heated body. She lifted a box filled with third-grade level math books from the top of her desk, aiming to put it away before the kids came back from recess. Being only five foot five made reaching the highest shelf nearly impossible, so Sam balanced precariously on her tippy-toes in hopes to reach the desired shelf.

"Ahem," Someone cleared their throats from the open doorway, causing Sam to loose her concentration and nearly fall back from the weight of the heavy box in her hands. Sam squealed as she regained her balance, turning to face the intruder.

"Oh! Hello Mrs. McNally!" Sam exclaimed as she placed the heavy box down on the nearest desk. "What can I do for you?"

"It seems that Mr. Pine, here, fell on the playground and scraped his knee. Since Mrs. Lynn is currently on brake, I figured you could maybe help him get better before recess ends." The round woman pushed a boy of eight years from behind her skirts and towards the smiling teacher.

"Oh dear," Sam cooed as she grabbed the small boy's hand, pulling him towards the desk closest to hers. "I'll fix him right up!" She picked up the small boy and sat him down on top of the desk so that she could get a good look at his skinned knee.

"Thank you, Sam!" Sam's coworker called as she walked away, presumably back to the grassy field the students were currently playing on.

"What's your name?" Sam asked with a smile as she rifled through the third drawer of her desk, pulling out a medical kit. The kit opened with a snap as Lee ruffled through it's contents, looking for bandages and disinfectant.

"My name's Zack," the boy said, fidgeting from his perch on the desk.

"Well, Zack, I'm gonna take a guess and say that you were playing ball a bit too hard, right?" Sam smiled as she pulled out a tube of Neosporin, a small alcohol swab, and a large bandage.

"Yeah," the black haired boy said bashfully as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Did you get a home run?" Sam asked happily as she swiped the scraped knee with an alcohol wipe quickly. She dabbed on the Neosporin to the scrap when he responded.

"No, but I was so close! You should have seen it! I was all like 'whoosh'! and then 'bam'!" Zack exclaimed, waving his arms around frantically in the air to show Sam how he had gotten his injury. She giggled as she placed the bandage over the small abrasion, her lips pulling into a kind smile.

"I wish I could have seen it!" Sam said as she discarded the used medical equipment. "I'd say you're done for today, and you have to be super-duper careful when you play tomorrow, okay?"

"I can't wait for tomorrow; we're playing KICKBALL!" Zack cried as he hopped up and down on the desk.

"Well," Sam started, grabbing a lollipop from her desk drawer, "I'll make sure to come down to see you kick a home run!" She handed the energetic boy the sugary treat, ruffling his hair as they heard screams of joy from outside.

"But I have to sit out for the rest of the day," the boy pouted as he heard his classmates yelling.

Sam lifted the boy from the desk and carefully placed him back on the ground. Zack wrapped his arms around Lee's middle as soon as his feet touched the ground.

"Thanks, Ms. Winters!" He said with a big smile.

"It's no trouble, sugar, now let's get out back out to recess!" She exclaimed, walking towards the window to look out onto the field. The children were playing happily on the grass, the hot Georgia air clearly not bothering them.

"Yes!" Zack exclaimed as he ran towards the door.

"Be careful!" Sam called uselessly after the boy. Chuckling, she tucked a stray blonde hair behind her ear, walking towards the neglected box of school books. Picking up the heavy box, Sam grunted as she thrust the box into the empty spot with a small jump.

She sighed as she shook out her arms; that box had been way too heavy for that high of a shelf. It'd been a while since she'd felt the burn of her muscles from overuse, and it was an uh welcomed feeling. Red lips curled into a smile as Sam walked towards her desk. With a click of the radio, a soft tune filled the room. Plopping in gracefully into her large chair, Sam slipped off her flats and tucked her knees under her. The stack of ungraded projects sat ominously on the desk, taunting Sam as she pulled off the cap of a red pen with her mouth, armed and ready to finish the grading.

A few minutes into the tedious grading there was an uproar coming from the open window. Sam smiled as she heard people cheering for someone with the name Zack to run faster. Obviously he had ignored her warning of running too hard and went right back onto the field. The cheering got louder and louder, causing Sam to look out the window towards the boy running around the makeshift bases.

Shaking her head with a smile, Sam looked back at the paper she was grading. The cheers increased, it seemed everyone was cheering. The radio crackled, making Sam tap it with her pen.

"_-an outbreak is sweeping through the nation-_"She fiddled the knob of the radio, trying to get a better signal.

"_-thousands dead-_" She smacked her hand on the side of the tiny grey box, moving the antenna around.

"_-ortant that you remain indoors. Do not go outside, do not leave your house, do not get bitten. There are infected persons roaming the streets as we speak- Ack, they're inside! Somebody shoot it!_" The station cut to static, making Sam frown as she smacked it a few times for good measure. Sam looked out the window and felt her heart stop.

There were bloody bodies strewn on the ground, children eating children and screams of pain. The cheers that Sam had thought were for Zack were actually screams of pain and fear. Sam shot up from her chair, running to the door and looking down the halls to hear more screams and see dead bodies littering the hallway. She grimaced, looking down at her bare feet, before grabbing her purse and making a run for the emergency stairs.

She fished out her phone from her purse, dialing her brother's number and waiting with baited breath for Trent to pick up the phone.

"C'mon, c'mon," Sam muttered as she vaulted down the stairs, her bare feet slapping against the linoleum floor. The dial tone continued ringing as she leapt over the dead body of her boss.

"Hello?" She heard his voice answer.

"Trent, thank god! Listen to me, get everything packed into the jeep." Sam panted as she ran out into the teachers parking lot.

"What? Why?" Trent asked, confused as all hell.

"Just do it!" She cried as she opened the door to her black VW Bug. She tossed her bag into the passenger seat and slammed the car door closed. She shot out of her parking space towards the entrance of the lot when she slammed on the brakes.

"Holy shit," Sam breathed into the phone. There was a group of bleeding and broken children standing at the entrance, staring at her car. They began to shuffle towards her car, moaning loudly as they tried to reach Sam.

"Sam?" Trent called out as she dropped the phone into the cup holder, floored the gas and drove through the mass of children.

"Fuck," she sobbed as she drove down the road, narrowly dodging bloody, walking bodies.

"Sam!?" Trent yelled, his voice screaming through the speaker of her phone.

"I'm here, I'm fine," Sam sobbed out as she picked up the phone again. "Just do what I asked. Get all of the camping stuff, dried food, the emergency packs, the stuff Dad took home from the shop, and any kind of clothes you can fit into the car. Wait for me at the house."

"Alright," Trent acquiesced, before hanging up.

Sam sobbed as she drove home as fast as she could, ignoring the destruction going on behind her.

* * *

"Sam!" Trent called as he barreled out of the house towards his tear stained sister.

"Thank God you're okay," Sam breathed as she wrapped him in a hug. "We have to get inside, like right now."

"You need to explain, Sam, why did I need to pack?" He said as he locked the door to their house behind them, dead bolting the door.

"Something happened at the school," she sighed as she tried to rub the mascara streaks off of her tear stained cheeks.

"What happened?" Trent asked as he tapped his foot.

"Have you turned on the TV in the last hour?The radio?" Sam asked, walking around to all the windows and shutting the blinds.

Trent walked over to the large TV in the living room, turning on the large device and staring blankly as he scrolled through blank channels. He flicked the remote to the news channel, hoping to get a response.

"-efugee camp in Atlanta, protected by the military and a safe haven from this plague. Head into the city for safety and be wary of everyone- you can't tell who's infected until it's too late."

"Holy shit," Trent said as he watched the screen switch to a live camera of buildings burning, dead bodies strewn over streets, and people getting eaten alive.

"That's what happened at the school." Sam sighed as she took the remote from his hands, turning off the disturbing images.

"The jeep's in the garage, I'll pack our things." Trent said as he ran up the stairs to his room.

"Hurry!" Sam called after him, heading towards her own room in the basement. She grabbed a duffle bag from underneath her bed, throwing in all of the clothes she could think of. Sweatshirts, undergarments, jeans, shorts, T-shirts, lots and lots of socks, work boots, and a few bandana's were squished into the army green duffel bag. A small side compartment was filled with razors and cream, soaps and shampoos, toothpaste and a toothbrush, and floss and tissues. Sam threw on a pair of socks and tied up her black ratty pair of converse, giving her feet some cover. With the duffle bag over her shoulder and her purse in her hand, Sam walked to the only other room in the basement: her father's supply room.

Sam's father John had been in the military when he was younger, learning the strict way of life and thrusting it upon his kids as soon as they were born. After he finished his service, John opened up a weapons shop, learning the tricks of buying, selling, and assembling both weapons and . He sold everything from guns to swords, from bows to axes; he even sold emergency packs that held dried food, medical supplies, and anything else that could help with survival. John had taken both Trent and Sam camping with their mother every weekend so they could go hunting and learn what it takes to survive on their own.

When John died, the shop had been forced to close because neither Tent nor Sam wanted to sell it or keep it going. Trent had just had his second child, Daisy, at the time, and was having a hard time juggling his high paying job as a trauma surgeon and being a father. Sam had just gotten out of college, going straight into a teaching job at the local elementary school, and from the taxing hours of the school day to the time she spent coming home to help raise her brother's kids made it nearly impossible to keep the old shop afloat. They ended up selling the shop but keeping all the equipment locked away in the basement of the house Trent and Sam shared.

Sam opened the door and breathed in the smell of her father's belongings; gunpowder, wood shavings, and dirt. Thinking back to the tragedy at hand, she picked up the pace as she pulled the guns off the walls, stuffing them into an army grade duffle bag. She pulled two compound bows off the wall, shoving handful upon handful of arrows into a large quiver. Knives, machetes, and crates of ammo were dragged up the stairs and into the hallway, where Trent was placing Daisy's bags at the base of the stairs.

"Do we have to bring them?" Trent asked with a grimace as he eyed the bags of weapons. He'd always hated violence, even as a kid.

"Trust me on this, we need them." Sam said with finality as she hauled the bags through the kitchen and towards the garage. The trunk of the large black jeep was already loaded with tents, emergency kits, food and water. The weapons were stacked on top of the tents, the bags of clothes were stacked next to the food, and both Daisy was strapped into her car seat, Baloo, their huge husky, sprawling himself across the empty seats. With everything set, Sam walked up to Trent, who was trying to dial his friends with the phone in the front hall.

"Everything's packed." Sam said as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "We have to go now, Trent, or we won't make it."

Tent sighed as he placed the phone back on the receiver. Her ran a hand through his hair as he turned to face Sam, who was looking at him with sympathetic eyes.

"It's gonna be okay, Trent," Sam sighed as she wrapped her arms around his torso. Trent buried his head in her shoulder as his body shook.

"What are we gonna do?" He whispered as he fought back tears.

"Survive," Sam said as she broke the embrace, taking his hand and pulling him towards the garage.

Everything they knew was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry it's short, I had a couple technical problems on top of having no time to write,**

**-Kate**

* * *

Sam tapped her fingers on the steering wheel tunelessly, her whole body fidgeting as time passed. The jeep was stuck in massive traffic on the main highway to Atlanta. Trent had installed a small television in the back seat for Daisy, the incessant drumming of her fingers being blocked out by the loud cackles of spongebob.

"We should get off the highway," Sam said, biting on the cuticle of her thumb nervously. The traffic hadn't moved for at least an hour, and it was already getting close to sundown. Sam didn't want to stay on the highway for any longer than she needed to be.

"There was an exit to the bug out a mile back, wasn't there?" Trent asked, playing absently with the rubix cube in his lap. When they were younger, their father had established that the nearby quarry was the perfect place to go during any crisis, excluding nuclear.

"If we don't start moving soon, I say we turn around and stay there for the night." Sam sighed, running a hand through her hair. People began getting out of their cars, a loud booming sound coming from somewhere in the city. Sam opened the door to the jeep and stood on the running board to see above all of the other cars. There seemed to be a heard of people moving out of the city, and Sam could see people getting out of their cars and running. With wide eyes, Sam got back in the car and shut the door, turning on the engine and buckling herself in.

"Change of plans, we're leaving now." Sam decided, shifting the car into first gear and gunning it off onto the grass next to the highway. Sam skillfully drove the car on the make shift road before she saw the turn of for the quarry. "It was stupid to go to Atlanta, anyway."

Sam drove through the wooded road, narrowly dodging fallen branches and other such items. About five minutes into the drive, sunlight began pouring through tops of the trees and hinting at the quarry. Sam took a cigarette from her pocket and quickly lit it, taking a drag before hearing her brother scoff.

"Really, Sam?" He asked, motioning towards Daisy who was not even remotely paying attention. Baloo let out a soft sneeze as the cigarette smoke drifted back to his sensitive nose, putting his paws over his nose and giving Sam what felt like a pout. Sam rolled her eyes and tapped the ashes out the window, taking another drag and blowing it towards her brother to spite him. "Those things are terrible for you. I thought you said you quit two months ago."

"I lied." Sam smirked, taking a drag of the cigarette and chuckling to herself as her brother groaned at the smell.

* * *

"Looks like people had the same idea that we had." Sam commented as she noticed other cars parked at the very top of the quarry. The black jeep slowed to a stop at the make-shift entrance of camp. "Stay inside." Trent had always hated confrontation so she took on the responsibility of greeting the group.

Sam turned the car off, sliding out of her side and smoothing out her polka dotted skirt with her hands. She walked forward, her converse crunching the gravel as she moved. Her blue eyes watched as a man in uniform stepped forward, standing tall and trying to be intimidating as his hand brushed up against his gun.

"What're you doin' here?" A police officer asked, his hand continuously twitching towards his standard Glock pistol.

"Same thing as you, tryin' to survive." Sam drawled, walking forward with a hesitant step, her eyes flicking down to his twitching hand. She cocked her hip to the side and crossed her arms under her chest, a small scowl twisting her lips as she noticed his eyes dancing along her cleavage. "If I were you, I'd keep that gun of yours away. I don't much like things pointing at me."

"You scared?" He asked, pulling his eyes away from her chest for a moment to smirk at her unease.

"If I didn't know any better, Officer Friendly, I'd say you were threatenin' me." Sam's eyes squinted at him as more armed men stepped up behind him to back him up.

"Gotta protect what's left," he smiled creepily at her. Sam let her eyes wander from the officer to the people behind him.

"That's a sentiment I know all too well." Sam said, glancing back at the car to her brother through the windshield. "I ain't askin' fer yer leg, I'm askin' fer a chance to live."

"None of us have a problem with it," An older man and a gentle smile said, stepping forward and extending a hand to her. "I'm Dale." Sam moved to grab the man's hand when Officer Friendly twitched to grab his gun. Seeing the slight movement out of the corner of her eye, Sam pulled out the two pistols from their thigh holsters and aimed them at the police officer before he had even blinked.

"Shane!" A dark haired woman from the RV yelled, racing out and smacking the officer on the arm. A young boy ran out after her, keeping at her side as the woman pushed the officer's loaded hand down towards the ground "Put the gun down!"

"She pulled 'em first," Shane retorted, keeping his eyes on the young woman. Sam's full red lips twisted into a scowl and her eyes glared at the officer, hesitating a moment before dropping the guns to her sides, sliding them back into their holsters.

"There's no need for that!" The woman that ran up to the officer called, walking up to Sam with an extended hand. "My name's Lori, over there's my son Carl."

"Name's Sam," She introduced, "I got my family in the car." A blonde woman came bounding up to the pair, holding out her hand with a smile.

"My name's Amy!" She said, shaking Sam's hand enthusiastically.

"It's nice to meet you all," Sam said with a soft smile, pulling her hand back from the young blonde. "You're sure it's okay that we stay here?"

"Of course," Lori said, sending Shane a look when he opened his mouth to protest.

Sam sent the woman a bright smile, motioning towards the jeep for her family to come out.

"That's Trent," She motioned to her younger brother, who was pulling his daughter out of her car seat. "That's Daisy," Sam named, "And this is Baloo." The husky jumped up onto Lori, licking her face mercilessly. "Sorry 'bout him."

"Oh, it's quite alright." Lori laughed. "How long have you been together?" Sam stalled for a second before she bust out laughing, catching everyones attention.

"Trent's my baby brother," Sam explained, trying to contain her laughter. "That's just nasty."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lori apologized with a sheepish smile.

"It's alright," Sam said rolling her eyes as she walked back towards the car. "I'm just gonna park this baby over by the RV, is that okay?"

"Fine by me," Dale said, smiling wildly.

"Thank you," Sam said, swiftly getting back into the car. She parked the Jeep behind the RV, turning the car off and ushering Trent and his kids out of the car.

Trent was carrying Daisy over towards a fire pit, where a hispanic family was sitting and chatting, while Baloo had run over to Carl and was energetically playing with the boy. Sam walked over to the car, getting in and parking it over by the RV as quickly as she could. Once she had parked, she opened up the trunk and began to unload everything they would need to set up a tent.

"Well, hey there, Sugartits." A sun darkened man called as he moved from the thicket, a large knife balanced on his shoulder as his eyes ran up and down her body.

"Hey, yourself, pig," Sam immediately retorted, rolling her eyes as she continued taking objects out of the car; though she didn't show it, she was put on edge by the man's obvious chauvinistic attitude.

"Aw," the man cooed, walking closer to the girl. "That's no way to introduce yourself."

"Take another step and I will castrate you." Sam threatened casually, turning to glance at the person that had walked up behind the insulting man. His bright eyes were squinted as he assessed the situation. From his angle, he could see the two guns strapped to her thighs because she was bent over the edge of the truck.

"That's not nice," The man said stepping towards the woman. She ignored him as he moved closer, grabbing a throwing knife from one of the bags she was moving and deftly throwing it next to the man's face, the knife hitting the tree behind him with a dull thud. The man stopped his advances, glancing between the girl and the knife a few times before speaking.

"You missed." He jibed, sliding his machete into the holder on his waist before crossing his arm.

"I never miss," She muttered, going back to digging through the bags.

"Well you missed this time, sugartits." The man swaggered over to the woman, aiming to smack her on the backside when her hand shot out and gripped him hard on the wrist, her grip sending a jolt of pain up the man's arm.

"Trust me, I never miss." She said with a glare, letting the man's arm go and moving to retrieve the knife from the tree. The man sent her a scowl before lumbering away. She sighed, deftly pulling the knife from the tree and depositing it back into the bag she took it from.

"Who're you?" A man asked, startling Sam slightly; she had completely forgotten he was there.

"It's only proper to tell me your name before you ask me mine," She sighed, slamming the trunk door shut before turning to face the man. Her eyes scanned him quickly, taking in his cross bow, cutoff shirt, and stubbly chin as his eyes studied her form.

"Asked you first," He retorted, biting on the skin of his thumb.

"Sam," She supplied, grabbing the large duffles from the floor and hefting them over her shoulders. She turned to leave, knowing she wasn't gonna get a name from the man just yet.


End file.
